Two Corrections: Dravid debut in 96 & not 95. Ganguley scored 60/30 in Aus series. Thanks to members to bring to my notice; 95 vs. 96 was a typo & Ganguley’s scores was a mistake
Well, they say, public memory is short. When it comes to cricket, it seems to be very short. Before someone goes ahead & terms Rahul as the best cricketer of India or batsman for that matter, consider these issues:
(1) He has played for India for 8 years now, debut in 96 in England, with Sourav G. Of these 8 years it is only last 2 years that he has shown actual GREAT performance when India really needed. (Exception in 2001 182 against Aus with Laxman’s 281)
(2) It is only from the last World-Cup he started playing good role in ODIs, both wicket keeping (an extraordinary contribution) & finishing some one days for India with Yuvraj & also playing a good knock of 50+ after Sachin’s brilliant 50+ against England. ===> Before the world-cup this guy was a pain to watch in ODIs.
(3) I mean he just tortured all the cricket fans by his 24 balls 2 runs, 23 balls 4 runs innings.....countless balls played directly to the fielders with little effort to improvise. Sort of a net practice for all the fielders! If you saw games regularly in 90s then you would realize what I am saying.
(4) In the tests he took looong time to score centuries almost making it certain that tests would result in a draw. It never happened that Dravid played with reasonable pace to get India a win. I remember a not out(?) 71 against Srilanka he made once after playing for a complete day!!
(5) He was too adamant & always thought that his technique has a priority over scoring runs for the team. He was thrown out of the team from ODIs due to lack of ability of finding gaps or scoring runs at a reasonable pace. He always had the potential to score runs faster but was too worried about this technique & didn’t want to improvise. Thought of improvisation needed for ODIs as a compromise.
(6) He was & is a very good batsman when there is no hurry. He needs a lot of time to score his runs. Takes time to settle down & even after settling down scores only on loose deliveries....works in test matches when there is enough time.
(7) There were occasional bursts in ODIs against Donald in SA etc but again he went into his shell for no apparent reason.
(8) 1996 to 2000 Tests: He almost never scored when India was in trouble.
Sachin’s ton in the first innings against WI went for a toss due to Indians not able to score 120 runs to win in the second innings....Sachin cried after that game! Again versus Pakistan in 99, Sachin scored 120+ despite of backache & was out with 15 runs remaining with 4(3?) wickets to go! Our guys let him down.....He was ’’inconsolable’’ as per the manager of the team after that match & didn’t come out to accept man of the match.
In a series against Australia when we lost 3-0, Sachin scored century & was given out incorrectly 3 times! Rahul was not able to score much above 30 runs for the whole series !!!! Just couldn’t adjust to the pace & bounce of the wickets. Remember Sachin made two centuries against Australia in 1991 series on bouncy tracks, one in Perth !!!!!!
Sachin won the games against Australia (In India) when he scored 155 in one test & 177 in other test...that too at an incredible rate....We won these 2 tests matches. What happened next: in the 3rd test in the 2nd innings Sachin was out for 27(?) caught brilliantly by Kasprovich & our team succumbed from 3 wickets to all out within next hour, We lost that game.....WHERE WAS DRAVID all this time??? For too long this guy had some centuries against some opponents but not much runs when it mattered the most. It is only last 2 years he is REALLY started showing some real guts.
Now some issues that are raised (against Sachin) while praising Dravid:
Sachin’s Captaincy: There too many misconceptions about this. The myth that Sachin was not a good captain...HE WAS a good captain. It just that it affected his batting & that we couldn’t afford. For a decade he was carrying the burden when Dravid was still in his teens (as far as batting goes).
Sachin was the FIRST captain to get 3/4 Fast bowlers in the team, Remember how he got Dodda Ramesh & made him play 4/5 tests ?? Hoping he will improve??? Who brought NEHRA in??? It was Sachin...!!! But this guys was injury prone.
Srinath won us a test match against South Africa; took 6 wickets under Sachin. Again We won the sole test against Australia, again 170_ by Mongia & wickets by our pacers....Sachin wanted to win outside India, his deepest desire, to win abroad with fast bowlers. As mentioned above we lost to Windies, failed to score 120 runs when Sachin’s scored 100 in first innings!!!
Next tour of Africa, Kumble failed to get last wicket of Africa in 4 overs (he tried a LOT though, honest effort) & due to bad light again our chance was lost. Sachin was really unlucky that time, he would have won the series against SA in SA !!!!!!!!
Sachin gave 100% under Azhar, under Ganguley & also under Dravid. When it was his time Azhar/Jadeja/Prabhakar were doing the match fixing; Ganguley was not able to get & still can’t get runs against quality bowling & Dravid was failing over & over again against the quality fast bowling. Ganguley was done by a Donald’s full-toss once after a bouncer !!! Just check today even after scoring 194 not out, this guys comes out for fielding & from the deep EVERY TIME he makes a throw to keeper consistently. His batting & bowling abilities have clouded his consistency in fielding department from last 15 years........The guy just keeps coming on & on & on.
Sachin I think is the only spinner who got Warne out twice on a Googley!!! :-)
I would advise a caution when you raise finger against Sachin & call the people who are far away from him better than the genius.
Nothing against the so called BIG in Indian cricket....just that they don’t even come close to the little master.
Ganguley’s captaincy: Someday later.....I like the way he protects & supports the younger bowlers, has continued to support the fast bowlers the way Sachin used to do & has prepared the current team of young players. But as far as his cricketing brain & field placements I think lets reserve it for some other time. I will come back & I will come back with objective evidence.
Indian cricket needs someone like IMRAN Khan, who commands respect & also at the same time has TREMENDOUS knowledge about the game itself. You should have watched on Ten Sports what he said about Zahir & Irfan’s bowling action, advantages & disadvantages....!!!! Man, that was gospel as far as cricket goes....!!!!!! I had hoped Sachin to be India’s Imran but he is too goody/goody & ’’ego less’’ for that. He matches Imran with knowledge & abilities but lacks the ability to be controversial when needed & remark boldly when needed. He lost the chance to be India’s Imran by traveling to Lonawala when Poly Umgrigar was trying to get hold of him to be captain.....they were begging him to be captain after Azhar/Prabhakar episode, instead he shied away (due to some valid reasons he had: Team selection etc) & Ganguley became the captain.
Enjoy guys, I think this is enough for today !!! :)
You may not agree with what all I wrote but we can always agree to disagree!
~Milind